OF ARTS AND SCIENCES : MAY 29, 1866. 109 



Dr. Beck visited Europe three times ; once in 1847, again in 1857, 

 and the last time in 1858. The last journey was undertaken prin- 

 cipally for a literary purpose. 



In 1856 he published in the Memoirs of the Academy a most impor- 

 tant contribution, on the Age of Petronius Arbiter, in which he takes 

 ground against the hasty conclusions of Niebuhr and Studer, and ex- 

 hausts the treasures of antiquity and language to prove that this puzzling 

 fiction must have been written either in the reign of Augustus or Tibe- 

 rius. Finding that the text of Petronius was in a very untrustworthy 

 state, he resolved to collate the manuscripts himself. On his last jour- 

 ney to Europe, in 1858 and 1859, he compared twenty of the twenty-one 

 existing manuscripts of Petronius. The results of these studies he pub- 

 lished in. a beautiful quarto volume, printed in Cambridge, 1863, at his 

 own expense, and distributed gratuitously. It is not hazardous to say 

 that the manuscripts of no author have ever been collated with a more 

 minute and conscientious accuracy than those of Petronius. It was 

 hoped by Dr. Beck's friends that he might feel inclined to edit Petro- 

 nius, a task for which he was so peculiarly qualified. He was pre- 

 vented from doing this partly by occupations which he considered more 

 important, and partly by the publication of a new Petronius in Ger- 

 many. Beside the two works alluded to, he published a third bearing 

 the name of Petronius, an inedited lexical fragment discovered by him 

 and printed in Vol. VIII. of the Memoirs of the Academy. In former 

 years he had published a number of works ; among which were a 

 Treatise on Gymnastics, Northampton, 1828 ; the Medea of Seneca, 

 1834; Cicero's Brutus, 1837, and in an entirely new edition, 1853; 

 Latin Syntax, 1838, and a second edition, 1844; the Hercules Furens 

 of Seneca, 1845 ; Munk's Metres of the Greeks and Romans, (trans- 

 lated with Professor Felton,) 1844; and beside this he had contributed 

 to literary journals. 



The same conscientious fidelity which marks his writings pervaded 

 all he did. The rule of his life was to do his duty as he understood it, 

 and the whole of his duty, without fear or favor, and to do all he could 

 for his fellow-men. As an instructor he was rigorous and exacting, but 

 not more so toward his pupils than toward himself. In the distribution 

 of his means he showed judgment as well as generosity. His contribu- 

 tions to the various public calls that have been so frequent, of late years 

 particularly, have been munificent. But his private charities have un- 

 doubtedly been greater still. No deserving foreigner ever appealed to 



